Blog Post #10 - High and Low-Angle Shots

 The angle at which you record is very important to a scene. The angle at which a shot is recorded can impact a scene massively, it can reveal a character's intentions or motivations to the audience, help to amplify a character's emotions, influence a scene, and reveal a character's authority in a narrative. Take this as an example: If you take a picture from a level, forward-facing angle, that will fail to reveal what a character is looking at if they are looking down; Using this technique will make what the character is thinking a mystery, leaving the audience to anticipate what is happening. 





The video above is an example of the previously stated technique. In this picture, the angle hides what the subject of the video is looking at, then when the shot changes it reveals what he is looking so stressed over, relieving the mystery of his focus. 

Low and High-Angle Shots 


Using a Low-Angle shot, which faces upwards towards a subject, makes the subject seem larger, and imposes a more powerful figure on the audience. This works by making the audience feel smaller while watching, and making the subject higher up, and therefore larger.

By creating the effect of being smaller than the subject, it makes the audience feel more fearful of the larger, dangerous-feeling subject. Furthermore, by imposing fear onto the audience, it places the subject into a position of authority over the audience. 


Low-angle shot of Batman, from The Dark Knight


On the other hand, using a High-Angle shot makes the audience feel as if they are bigger than the subjects that the camera is looking down upon, placing the subjects in a position of inferiority. This technique makes the audience feel as if the subjects are smaller, inferior, and less powerful than them. If from the point-of-view of another character in a film, it lets the audience know that the characters being looked down upon are seen as weaker to them.


High-Angle Shot of Thor and Captain America, from The Avengers

 

Conclusion

Using these High and Low-Angle shots in combination with other strategies, such as foley sounds and lighting will greatly help me to set the mood in my project. I plan to use High-Angle shots to impose authority and place emphasis on objects that will be picked up and carried by my characters. 

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